Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of ITI. I talked about, in my Member’s statement, the Sahtu’s potential for the oil and gas activity and billions of barrels that are on reserves and untapped in the Sahtu.

I want to ask the Minister of ITI if our assessments of the Sahtu Canol shale play is coming to fruition with the amount of activity going on in the Sahtu, and what is his department doing to deal with the impacts of that type of activity that could be happening in the next 25 or 30 years.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Sahtu we have always known there would be another oil strike, a big boom. The only question was when. Now we believe that the time is here. Unprecedented, record-setting, record breaking amounts of money is being spent in the Sahtu, and is being committed in the Sahtu has begun. Now it is our time. Over the last two seasons we have seen work ramping up. All you need to know is the recent traffic jam we had on our winter roads, and the number of people working and all the activity that’s been happening in the Sahtu.

While this has brought a lot of benefits to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about some of the elders that have passed away in the Sahtu. Even more sadly, these elders that passed away, passed away outside of their communities, in Yellowknife, and it was very hard in the last days of their lives for family to come and receive any last messages from these elders.

I want to ask the Minister of Health and Social Services for a status update as to the proposed long-term care facility in the Sahtu. People in the Sahtu would like to see that facility up and running so we do not have to send our elders outside of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to welcome all my colleagues back to session here. Throughout the years as a Member, we as MLAs get invited to functions and celebrations. We also get invited to other events that are sometimes not so celebratory, such as funerals and wakes.

I want to rise today to talk about the specific losses that we’ve had in the Sahtu. I’ve heard from our other colleagues of some of the people they lost in their ridings. For example, up in the Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Frank Firth, a good friend of mine that passed away in Fort McPherson, or the pilot for whom we just had a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like the Minister to look at another word we should scrap, if possible, out of our dictionary and look at the possibilities. Possibly look at all the different types of avenues as to how to help our trappers and hunters in our communities where the price is extraordinarily high for them. We encourage traditional economies. I’d ask the Minister if he would possibly look at the possibilities that this government can do to help our hunters and trappers.

I appreciate the Minister’s flexibility to look at ways that we could look at and that there’s no guarantee. I want to ask the Minister, there are two pricings in our small community: one with government, and non-government. I’m asking that because the government rate is lower than the non-government, I believe, that the hunters and trappers can use that system. I’m just asking if that’s a possibility with Cabinet if they can go that route, specifically for trappers and hunters in our communities.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to let this government know we appreciate the health centre and the long-term care facility. It’s been in my books for a long, long time, and I’d like to say to them that the people in the Sahtu appreciate this.

Can I ask the Minister if there’s an outline or a time frame that he could provide to me in regard to a training plan, so I can inform and work with this Cabinet to let the people in the Sahtu know when these training opportunities will be available so that our young students who are graduating and finishing school can take further courses to upgrade and...

Thank you, Mr. Minister, for the update for the people in the Sahtu. I want to ask about the staffing and the positions of the Sahtu long-term care facility.

Are there plans underway to work with his colleagues to look at some of these positions that would be in this facility, and what type of training opportunities will be there for the people of the Northwest Territories to take advantage of once this facility is open?

When is that facility scheduled to be opened and operational for the people of the North and for the people of the Sahtu?

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize David Krutko also, a former Member of the House.

If the Minister could look at that with his colleague and find ways that it’s possible for our hunters and trappers to be covered under that structure of pricing, then it would be greatly appreciated by hunters and trappers that they would buy their fuel at a reduced cost. It costs quite a bit to operate a trapline in our communities. If the Minister could look at that once again, I would appreciate it.